Communities – Wales unsung asset?

No one reading this website will need reminding that for many hundreds of thousands of Welsh residents that this is a tough winter with worse likely to come.

Many people don’t have enough money, even after additional Government support for fuel bills, to pay for the basics and many families are not heating their homes properly, not only resulting in discomfort but negative impacts on physical and mental health, making the crisis far worse.[1]

However for many people in Welsh communities there is some existing help at hand to help with both material wellbeing – food and cheaper goods - and with mental health.

Last November, Jenny Rathbone MS led a debate outlining the value of community hubs in protecting the mental health of local residents, drawing on research from Mind [2]  (which reinforces earlier work by Cardiff University [3]) showing the benefits that Community hubs bring to the mental health of residents in poorer neighbourhoods.

And earlier in the week Cefin Campbell MS had been extolling the virtues of the work of community run assets in providing vital social support to residents and developing and sustaining vital local community buildings and services. [4]

It is not surprising that recognition is turning, once again, to the actions of community organisations in providing local support. As Cefin Campbell recognised Our communities were at the very forefront of the pandemic response: neighbours working together to keep each other fed, healthy and connected. Now they are being called on to confront a cost-of-living crisis and it is many of the same organisations who were so active during the pandemic who are active. There has been a lot of talk in the last few months about setting up “warm hubs” where people can socialise and stay warm together in their communities. A few of those are being set up in public buildings like libraries but far far more will be in the existing community buildings that are already used by residents and which are far more accessible.

Community assets, as BCT found out when mapping them just before the pandemic [5], cover a wide range of buildings and parcels of land covering all purpose community buildings (often known as “hubs”) to play schemes, shops, pubs, gardens, tourism facilities, youth and older people’s venues and more. Almost all have been developed independently of the state and while some have had Government funding for capital works, very very few get ongoing funds. And it is these assets that provide the foundation for community action. They are organisations that can recruit and support volunteers, they offer assets which can run community activity (and partner with others) and they have the capacity to raise and utilise funding effectively.

But if community assets are playing a vital role in the response to successive crises their emergence and development has been almost entirely unconnected with Government policies despite the clear public benefits their work provides. They have developed with limited funding and with fewer rights on acquiring public buildings than counterparts in England and Scotland.

And the need for community assets is only going to grow, especially as further public spending cuts are likely to increase the need for community action.

As more and more politicians across the political spectrum are starting to recognise, this needs a step change in Government thinking. Whilst Welsh Government’s references to its new communities policy are welcome, more needs doing. The Government will shortly be responding to the Local Government & Housing Committee’s report on community asset transfer, a topic on which they have prevaricated for years. Acceptance of the Committee’s recommendations for a Commission on Asset transfer will mark a vital step in the right direction.

This year will see the first funding being released from recent Dormant Assets legislation which will provide some £44m in funding for “good causes” in Wales over the next 15 years. This windfall provides a perfect opportunity for the investment that vital community organisations need to make their own work more resilient. Instead of pouring cold water on the opportunities this funding offers, Welsh Government should be looking to seize this opportunity to invest in the community organisations so many people rely upon in difficult times.

[1] Cost of Living in Wales a Public Health Lens, Public Health Wales, 2022.

[2] Together Through Tough Times, Mind, Co-op Group, Inspire, SAMH 2021

[3] Neighbourhood, social deprivation and mental health: the mediating role of social cohesion; Cardiff University 2008.

[4] We owe it to our communities to provide support they need not merely to survive, but to thrive (Nation.Cymru)

[5] Mapping Community Assets in Wales, BCT 2020